FRESNO, Calif. \u2014 Parents and educators at several Fresno Unified schools are pushing back against the district\u2019s decision to reassign school vice principals ahead of the upcoming school year.<\/p>\n
FOX26 News Reporter Mayra Franco spoke with a parent and the Fresno Teachers Association about the impact these moves could have on school communities. <\/p>\n
She also reports that petitions are now circulating across the district in response to the changes.<\/p>\n
So far, there are at least three petitions signed by educators asking the district to reconsider the decision, along with one petition from parents calling for the same outcome.<\/p>\n
At Mayfair Elementary, parent Angela Carrasco says families are fighting to keep Vice Principal Mrs. Maga\u00f1a, who she says has spent years building trust within the school community.<\/p>\n
\u201cShe\u2019s a pillar of Mayfair Elementary. She has done so much there, not just for all the students, the staff, the families as well, even our bilingual community as well,\u201d Carrasco said.<\/p>\n
The petition at Mayfair has collected more than 186 signatures, with families hoping district leaders will reconsider.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhy take someone away from the school that they\u2019re doing so good at, to another school, when they can just bring someone new,\u201d Carrasco said.<\/p>\n
The Fresno Teachers Association says concerns are not limited to a single school.<\/p>\n
FTA President Manuel Bonilla says the union has been receiving calls from educators across multiple campuses.<\/p>\n
The district identifies five schools involved in the reassignment process:<\/p>\n
Herrea Elementary SchoolTurner Elementary SchoolMalloch Elementary SchoolDuncan High SchoolMayfair Elementary School<\/p>\n
Bonilla says some educators and parents feel unheard in the process.<\/p>\n
\u201cNumerous parents that have reached out felt, number one, unheard, and two, as if their issues were just being completely ignored,\u201d Bonilla said.<\/p>\n
He also questioned how the district is making its decisions.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe have examples of quality leadership where we want the leader to stay, and the district is choosing to move them for no apparent reason,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
In response to the concerns, Fresno Unified says the reassignments are based on several factors aimed at strengthening support across campuses that need it.<\/p>\n
The district confirms there are 5 principal and 26 vice principal lateral reassignments taking place across Fresno Unified this year.<\/p>\n
Officials also addressed concerns from parents who worry the changes could disrupt school culture.<\/p>\n
\u201cLateral placements occur every year. Healthy cultures are built and sustained by staff, students and leaders, not any one person,\u201d the district said in a statement. \u201cWe are confident that the lateral changes will not negatively impact the progress of schools.\u201d<\/p>\n
The district added it is confident the changes will improve outcomes across the district.<\/p>\n
Fresno Unified also acknowledged that vice principal rotations are not common compared to other districts, but said the moves are still routine.<\/p>\n
When asked why the reassignments are happening now, the district said: \u201cIt is common to laterally reassign leaders every year to meet the district\u2019s needs. This year, we experienced a greater number of vacancies due to PARS retirements.\u201d<\/p>\n
The district also confirmed that, despite community petitions and concerns, the decision will not be reconsidered.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"FRESNO, Calif. \u2014 Parents and educators at several Fresno Unified schools are pushing back against the district\u2019s decision…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":355513,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[31],"tags":[112,114,113],"class_list":["post-355512","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fresno","tag-fresno","tag-fresno-headlines","tag-fresno-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355512","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=355512"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/355512\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/355513"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=355512"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=355512"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=355512"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}